Middle East

FILE - U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, speaks during a news conference in Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 9, 2023. The United Nations is calling for "a clear, transparent and credible investigation" of mass graves uncovered at two major hospitals in war-torn Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

UN calls for investigation into mass graves uncovered at two Gaza hospitals raided by Israel

The United Nations is calling for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves uncovered at two major hospitals in war-torn Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops.
 
FILE - Migrants wait in line for a distribution of blankets close to the Turkish-Greek border near Pazarkule, Edirne region, Turkey, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. European Union auditors said on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, they are unable to establish whether some of the billions of euros the bloc has given to Turkey to help it cope with Syrian refugees is actually having any impact. EU leaders and Turkey in 2016, committed to provide at least 6 billion euros ($6.4 billion) to Turkey to help it cope with migrants crossing in from Syria. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)

Auditors say it’s hard to tell how Turkey is using EU refugee funds. Some officials aren’t helpful

 
FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, meets Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress of China, in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 13, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

North Korea sends a delegation to Iran in a growing effort to break its diplomatic isolation

 
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The Latest | Germany will resume working with UN agency for Palestinians, following review

 
A missile defense site near an international airport and air base is seen in Isfahan, Iran, Monday, April 22, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Satellite photos suggest Iran air defense radar struck in Isfahan during apparent Israeli attack

 
FILE- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi places his hands on his heart as a gesture of respect to the crowd during the funeral ceremony of the victims of Wednesday's bomb explosion in the city of Kerman about 510 miles (820 kms) southeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, Jan. 5, 2024. Raisi arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday to inaugurate a hydro-power irrigation scheme that had long been delayed due to international sanctions. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to inaugurate Sri Lankan hydropower and irrigation project

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has arrived in Sri Lanka to inaugurate a hydropower and irrigation project that was long delayed due to international sanctions on his government and other issues.
 
EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01 UTC APRIL 24,2024 Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, speaks at a press conference in London, ahead of the launch of 'The State of the World's Human Rights', its annual report on the global human rights situation, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. The report will be published on Wednesday April 24, covering 155 countries and including regional and global analyses, it provides the most comprehensive overview of human rights trends and developments in the world today. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

World seeing near breakdown of international law amid wars in Gaza and Ukraine, Amnesty says

Amnesty International says the world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar.
 
Students protest at an encampment on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Pro-Palestinian student protests target colleges’ financial ties with Israel

Students at a growing number of U.S. colleges are gathering in pro-Palestinian encampments with a unified demand to end investments supporting Israel’s war in Gaza.
 
Israeli soldier walks by a pickup truck used by Palestinian militants in Sderot, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

Israeli military intelligence chief resigns, first senior official to step down over Oct. 7 attacks

The head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate has resigned over Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Maj. Gen.
 
Palestinian children who fled with their parents from their houses in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, gather in the backyard of an UNRWA school, in Sidon, Lebanon, Sept. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File)

Review of UN agency helping Palestinian refugees found Israel did not express concern about staff

An independent review of the neutrality of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees has found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011.
 
President Joe Biden arrives to speak at Prince William Forest Park on Earth Day, Monday, April 22, 2024, in Triangle, Va. Biden is announcing $7 billion in federal grants to provide residential solar projects serving low- and middle-income communities and expanding his American Climate Corps green jobs training program. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Biden’s Morehouse graduation invitation is sparking backlash, complicating election-year appearance

President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker for Georgia’s Morehouse College and at West Point next month.
 
Nepal's President Ram Chandra Poudel checks his watch as he and Minister of Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha, wait for Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al arrival at Tribhuvan international airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. The emir arrived on a two-days visit to the Himalayan nation. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shreshta)

Qatari emir in Nepal, expected to tackle migrant conditions and Nepali student held hostage by Hamas

The emir of Qatar has landed in Nepal on his first-ever visit to the South Asian country, after visiting Bangladesh and the Philippines, where improving migrant workers’ conditions in the Gulf state and a Nepali student still held hostage by Hamas are expected to be on the agenda.
 
Israeli police detain a suspected attacker in an apparent car ramming that wounded three people on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 22, 2024. Israeli police said they have arrested two people after a car slammed into pedestrians in Jerusalem on Monday, lightly wounding three. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

The Latest | Failed rocket strike launched on US-led coalition forces base in Syria

A U.S. defense official said that a failed rocket strike was launched Sunday night at a base housing U.S.
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint statement to the media in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April 22, 2024. Erdogan arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first official visit in more than a decade. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye /Pool Photo via AP)

Kurdish separatists and water issues loom large in long-awaited visit of Turkey’s Erdogan to Iraq

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is making his first official visit to Iraq in more than a decade as Ankara seeks greater cooperation from Baghdad in its fight against a Kurdish militant group that has a foothold in Iraq’s north.
 
FILE - Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley speaks in London, Nov. 9, 2023. London's police commissioner will meet with senior members of the Jewish community on Monday April 22, 2024 after the force bungled its apology for suggesting an "openly Jewish'' man's presence along the route of a pro-Palestinian march risked provoking the demonstrators. (James Manning/PA via AP, File)

London police to meet with Jewish leaders as protests spark concerns about the safety of Jews

London’s police commissioner will meet with senior members of the Jewish community on Monday after the force bungled its apology for suggesting an “openly Jewish″ man’s presence along the route of a pro-Palestinian march risked provoking the demonstrators.
 
Relatives mourn over the body of a Palestinian man, draped in the Islamic Jihad militant group flags, during his funeral in the Nur Shams refugee camp, near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, Sunday, April 21, 2024. The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said 14 bodies have been recovered from the Nur Shams urban refugee camp since an Israeli military operation began in the area Thursday night. The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed the deaths of three members. Another killed was a 15-year-old boy. The Israeli army said its forces killed 10 militants in the camp and surrounding areas while eight suspects were arrested. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill 22, mostly children, as US advances aid package

Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah killed 22 people. The dead include 18 children.
 
This satellite photo taken by Planet Labs PBC shows Israel's Nevatim air base on Friday, April 19, 2024. An Iranian attack on an Israeli desert air base as part of Tehran's unprecedented assault on the country damaged a taxiway, a satellite image analyzed by The Associated Press on Saturday shows. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

Satellite image analyzed by AP shows damage after Iranian attack on Israeli desert air base

An Iranian attack on an Israeli desert air base last week as part of Tehran’s unprecedented assault on the country damaged a taxiway.
 
FILE - Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, April 19, 2024. President Joe Biden can breathe a little bit easier with Israel and Iran seemingly stepping back from the brink of plunging the Middle East into all-out war. But challenges across the Middle East are testing the proposition he made to voters during his 2020 campaign: A Biden White House would bring a measure of calm around the globe and renewed respect on the world stage. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Biden avoids a further Mideast spiral as Israel and Iran show restraint. But for how long?

President Joe Biden can perhaps breathe a bit easier given that Israel and Iran seem to have stepped back for now from tipping the Middle East into all-out war.
 

Iraq investigates a blast at a base of Iran-allied militias that killed 1. US denies involvement

Iraqi authorities say they are investigating an explosion that struck a base belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of Iran-allied militias, overnight, killing one person and injuring eight.
 
An E15 nozzle is displayed on a pum at service station in Minneapolis, Monday, Oct. 28, 2013 photo. The Environmental Protection Agency cleared the way Friday, April 19, 2024, for E15, a higher blend of ethanol, to be sold nationwide for the third summer in a row. Gasoline with 10% ethanol is already sold nationwide, but the higher blend has been prohibited in the summer because of concerns it could worsen smog during warm weather. (Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via AP, File)

The EPA is again allowing summer sales of higher ethanol gasoline blend, citing global conflicts

The Environmental Protection Agency is allowing the sale of gasoline containing a higher blend of ethanol for the third summer in a row.
 
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during the AmCham China Fireside Chat held at the Baiyun International Conference Center (BICC) in southern China's Guangdong province, Friday, April 5, 2024.(AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

Thai plastics firm will pay $20 million to settle with U.S. over Iran sanctions violations

A Bangkok-based plastics firm has agreed to pay $20 million to settle with the U.S. over 467 violations of Iran sanctions. The U.S.
 
This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo)

Attack blamed on IS militants kills 22 pro-government fighters in central Syria

An opposition war monitor and a pro-government media outlet say an attack on pro-government fighters by suspected members of the Islamic State group in central Syria killed 22 pro-government fighters.
 
An abandoned vehicle stands in floodwater caused by heavy rain with the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, seen on the background, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, April 18, 2024. The United Arab Emirates attempted to dry out Thursday from the heaviest rain the desert nation has ever recorded, a deluge that flooded out Dubai International Airport and disrupted flights through the world's busiest airfield for international travel. (AP Photo/Christopher Pike)

3 dead amid heavy flooding caused by record rain in the UAE

Officials say three people have died in the United Arab Emirates as a result of heavy flooding caused by record-setting rains this week.
 
Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defenses at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The Latest | World leaders call on Iran and Israel to avoid allowing conflict to worsen

World leaders are calling on Iran and Israel to try to avoid escalating tensions following the apparent Israeli strike near an Iranian air base and nuclear facility.
 
Iranian women walk past a banner showing missiles being launched from Iranian map in northern Tehran, Iran, April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israel, Iran play down apparent Israeli strike. The muted responses could calm tensions — for now

Israel and Iran are both playing down an apparent Israeli airstrike near a major air base and nuclear site in central Iran.
 
FILE - The U.S. Treasury Department building, June 6, 2019, in Washington. The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising for extremist Israeli-occupied West Bank settlers who have harassed and attacked Palestinians, as well as the founder of an organization whose members regularly assault Palestinians. The Treasury Department announcement comes as the West Bank has seen some of its worst violence perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians since the war in nearby Gaza began. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

US and UK issue new sanctions on Iran in response to Tehran’s weekend attack on Israel

The U.S. and U.K. have imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran as concern grows that Tehran’s unprecedented attack on Israel could fuel a wider war in the Middle East.
 
En este bosquejo artístico aparece Salah Al-Ejaili, al frente, derecha, con anteojos, experiodista de Al-Jazeera, ante el tribunal de distrito de Estados Unidos en Alexandria, Virginia, el martes 16 de abril de 2024. Al-Ejaili ha testificado sobre abusos que sufrió cuando estuvo detenido de la prisión de Abu Ghraib, en Irak. (Dana Verkouteren vía AP)

Abu Ghraib military contractor warned bosses of abuses 2 weeks after arriving, testimony reveals

A civilian contractor sent to work as an interrogator at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison resigned within two weeks of his arrival and told his corporate bosses that mistreatment of detainees was likely to continue.
 
Municipal police officers patrol outside a villa where the Lebanese money changer Mohammad Srour, 57, was found tortured and killed in Monte Verdi neighbourhood of Beit Meri, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Lebanon’s interior minister alleged Wednesday that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese financier in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Lebanon says Israeli agents likely killed Hezbollah-linked currency exchanger near Beirut

Lebanon’s Interior Minister says Israeli agents were most likely behind this month’s killing of a U.S-sanctioned Lebanese currency exchanger in a mountain resort overlooking Beirut.
 
FILE - Women residents from former Islamic State-held areas in Syria line up for aid supplies at Al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province, Syria, March 31, 2019. Amnesty International said Wednesday, April 17, 2024 it has documented widespread abuses, including torture and deprivation of medical care, in detention facilities holding thousands of suspected Islamic State members and their relatives in northeast Syria. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

Human rights group alleges widespread torture, abuse of detainees accused of IS affiliation in Syria

Amnesty International says it has documented widespread abuses, including torture and deprivation of medical care, in detention facilities holding thousands of suspected Islamic State members and their relatives in northeast Syria.
 
Iranian army members march during Army Day parade at a military base in northern Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. In the parade, President Ebrahim Raisi warned that the "tiniest invasion" by Israel would bring a "massive and harsh" response, as the region braces for potential Israeli retaliation after Iran's attack over the weekend. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Netanyahu brushes off calls for restraint, saying Israel will decide how to respond to Iran’s attack

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country will be the one to decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s major air assault over the weekend.
 
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks during an interview with The Associated Press as he arrives for a G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in the Italian southern island of Capri, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The Group of Seven foreign ministers are meeting on the Italian resort island of Capri, with soaring tensions in the Mideast and Russia's continuing war in Ukraine topping the agenda. The meeting runs April 17-19. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

G7 ministers eye targeted sanctions on Iran and a message of restraint for Israel at Italy meeting

Group of Seven foreign ministers are meeting on the resort island of Capri amid calls for new sanctions against Iran.
 
FILE - This late 2003 photo obtained by The Associated Press shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. A trial scheduled to begin Monday, April 15, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., will be the first time that survivors of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison will bring their claims of torture to a U.S. jury. Twenty years earlier, photos of abused prisoners and smiling U.S. soldiers guarding them shocked the world. (AP Photo, File)

Retired general’s testimony links private contractor to Abu Ghraib abuses

An Army general who investigated the abuse of prisoners 20 years ago at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison has testified that a civilian contractor instructed prison guards to “soften up” detainees for interrogations.
 
FILE - A battery of Israel's Iron Dome defense missile system, deployed to intercept rockets, sits in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Aug. 7, 2022. Israel is vowing to retaliate against Iran, risking further expanding the shadow war between the two foes into a direct conflict after an Iranian attack over the weekend sent hundreds of drones and missiles toward Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

Israel says it will retaliate against Iran. These are the risks that could pose to Israel

Israel is vowing to retaliate against Iran even though such a mission carries many risks. Any direct attack on Iranian soil would risk prompting an all-out war between the two foes at a time when Israel is focused on defeating Hamas in Gaza.
 
Farid Alilat, a writer for the French-language magazine Jeune Afrique poses for photo in Paris, France, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Alilat was expelled from Algeria after flying in from France and not being allowed to leave the airport as journalists continue to face challenges reporting in Algeria. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Algerian journalist says he was expelled from his country without explanation

An Algerian journalist is decrying his expulsion from the country after flying in from France and not being allowed to leave the airport last weekend.
 
Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings of the Abo al Hanood family after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, April 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

The Latest | UN chief calls for `urgent de-escalation’ in the Middle East

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling for “urgent de-escalation” of hostilities in a phone conversation with Iran’s foreign minister following Tehran’s weekend attack on Israel.
 
FILE - This late 2003 photo obtained by The Associated Press shows an unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to him in the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. A trial scheduled to begin Monday, April 15, 2024, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., will be the first time that survivors of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison will bring their claims of torture to a U.S. jury. Twenty years earlier, photos of abused prisoners and smiling U.S. soldiers guarding them shocked the world. (AP Photo, File)

Abu Ghraib detainee shares emotional testimony during trial against Virginia military contractor

A former detainee at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison described to jurors in Virginia the abuse he suffered in more than a month of incarceration in 2003.
 
FILE - A Palestinian resident of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem stands near a sidewalk, Nov. 2, 2021. An Israeli court on Monday, April 15, 2024 ordered the eviction of a Palestinian family in the contested neighborhood of east Jerusalem, the latest in a legal saga that has come to symbolize the conflicting claims to the holy city. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, file)

Israel orders eviction of Palestinian family from east Jerusalem property, reigniting a legal battle

An Israeli court has ordered the eviction of Palestinian family in a deeply contested neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
 
This is a locator map for the Gulf Cooperation Council member states: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo)

Sudden heavy rains in Oman kill at least 17 including schoolchildren whose bus was overtaken

Heavy rainfall has caused flash flooding in Oman on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula and killed at least 17 people.
 
A woman walks past an anti-Israeli banner on a building at the Felestin (Palestine) Square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 14, 2024. Israel on Sunday hailed its air defenses in the face of an unprecedented attack by Iran, saying the systems thwarted 99% of the more than 300 drones and missiles launched toward its territory. The sign in Hebrew reads: "Your next mistake will be the end of your fake country." The sign in Farsi reads: "The next slap will be harder." (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Analysis: Iran upends decades of shadow warfare in direct attack on Israel as tensions mount at home

Iran’s direct attack on Israel over the weekend upended decades of its shadowy warfare by proxy, something Tehran has used to manage international repercussions for its actions.
 
General view of the Stockholm District Court ahead of the main hearing against the former Syrian brigadier general Mohammed Hamo, who stands accused of aiding and abetting war crimes in Syria in 2012, and whose trial starts today, Monday April 15, 2024 (Oscar Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

The trial of a former Syrian general over alleged role in war crimes starts in Stockholm

The trial of a former Syrian army general over his alleged role in war crimes committed in 2012 in his home country started at a Stockholm court, a first according to a human rights organization.